As a young boy raised in the rigid catechism of the Catholic Church, I was no stranger to contradiction and non sequitur.

The high, arching vaults of cathedral whose vertical volume is designed to put man in his place among the towering edifice of the saints, the superimposed almost miniature scale of the pews, the oppressive silence of a vast and empty church.

The looming spectacle of towering oak confessionals, hushed inside with heavy curtain, and black, pitch black, it takes a few moments to find the kneeling pad and to position yourself near the thin fabric partition panel, a wooden core perforated with small holes from which movement and shadow emerge.

A rustling ensues and an invisible door slides open, exposing the partition to the priest’s chamber on the other side. You cannot see but you can hear.

The priest speaks in a thick Irish brogue, first in Latin then after an appropriate incantation, in English. I tremble in the darkness as the sins of a 12 year tumble out, slowly and haltingly at first, then uncontrollably. A tidal wave of transgressions, the bad words spoken, the stolen candy, the parental disrespect, the poor scholastic performance, all of it comes out. There is no consolation, no hope of salvation, the depths of hell soon to open up and engulf me, the oxygen is gone and I begin to suffocate, the pregnant pause and heavy silence of the invisible priest validates the certainty of my demise.

The priest pauses, taking it all in, his mind weighing the calculus of just penance for such sins of the living. Venial and mortal are weighed against gravitas and malign, the 20 century old calculator passed through the ages whirrs and crackles, and the penance is announced:

“Two laps around the rosary beads and six Hail Mary’s will settle the accounting nicely. To be completed immediately.”

I emerge from the dank confessional into a beam streaming from stained glass clerestory windows, light in step and free of heart, the banality of the exchange from sinner to winner lost in the eager imagination of a 12 year old.

For this is the story of a centuries old institution, full of hypocrisy and theology squandered through the millennia, as it attempts to rehabilitate itself.

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The Church occupies a precarious space between irrelevance and populist hypocrisy on the one side, and the frothy wrath of conservative thinking, chaired by Capital on the other. Chastened by its post-Enlightenment fall from grace, the Church tentatively sought out the meager ground of allowable existence bifurcating these two forces.

As a result, the Church’s positions are filtered to maintain an uneasy equilibrium between these opposing dictates.

The Church long ago decided that a post Enlightenment bias toward hypocrisy and irrelevance was preferred, as at least survival was possible. Tangling with the forces of Capital in its unwavering march of exploitation, both of labor and of environment, was clearly a more ominous undertaking than offending suburban church ladies by turning a blind eye towards meaningful social commentary.

But the fetters of Capital were but a primer for the existential challenges the Church has always faced since time immemorial. The conservative Church has millennia of expertise at a very deep level in not only understanding external threats, but in countering them- effectively.

These existential threats come in several forms, but one of the most damaging comes from the positioning of Man within Nature.

The essential premise is the concept of Dominion, a stated Church philosophy that Nature is under the dominion of Man, entirely subservient to and dictated by Man. Dominion taken literally asserts mastery or control over a subject, the fundamentalist view takes this further into (theological) Dominion of government and other religions not compliant with Christianity. Taken in this form, Dominion reflects a dangerous authoritarian system- even fascist- means of societal structure.

The Roman Catholic interpretation allows for Dominion in the context of the greater good, a collectivist view which is not absolute. This is drastically different than the fundamentalist view which has no room for greater good considerations.

We can see the slippery slope emerge and morph through the ages until the intersection with Capital and its attendant system of value production. Herein we see a definition of the “greater good” that becomes increasingly influenced by Capital until it becomes entirely subsumed to represent any conceivable exploitation of the environment in the pursuit of profits.

The Church’s liberalized interpretation of Dominion becomes its own worst enemy.

Another significant factor in the theological scrum of ideologies is the notion of monotheism, versus pantheism and polytheism.

These concepts juggle the position and relationship of Man to the Environment, and a central objective of Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular is displacing these alternative theisms by a singular omnipotent and externalized God.

This displacement is essential to establish Christian dominance in all matters-science, and sociology included. Christianity wants no competitors, no sharing of power, no interference from pagan idolatry, it insists on a zero tolerance policy.

Pantheism in particular has a much more integrated understanding of the relationship of Man and Nature by deifying aspects of nature, a position considered heresy by the mainstream Church.

Acknowledging that elements of Nature are sacred is a concession to neo-paganism- an existential threat to the Church which has spent millennia trying to unravel these alternative belief systems.

The Church systematically dismantled these pluralistic options to establish, maintain, and control theological dominance- a strategy that remained effective for 1600 years, notwithstanding a few religious wars and dust-ups along the way.

But what we are left with is a dismissal of Nature, and enforced subservience, and an attack stance towards any belief system that suggests any outsized importance for Nature beyond relying on an externalized God.

These manifestations are relatively benign in a pre-Capitalist world with insignificant populations, but an explosion in population coupled with the intersection of Capital proves to be a poisonous elixir.

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Merger of Capitalism and Christianity

The constraints of dominion and a subservient Nature pass through the millennia, benign at first with (relatively) small numbers of humans embedded in a vast tableau of Nature, then exploding into crisis with the intersection of Capital and the Industrial Revolution.

Against the backdrop of the Industrial revolution, the ascendancy of Capitalist value production, and importantly, the tectonic shift from an agrarian lifestyle of self-sufficiency to a wage labor economy, there arises an increasing and profoundly powerful exploitation of the environment.

This manifests in two dimensions, firstly, on the input side as natural resources are extracted at an increasing rate in support not just of an exponentially increasing population, but of the added and significant burden of creating profit for profit’s sake, for which there is no end and no demand limits.

On the output side, the waste products of unlimited value production are unleashed on the environment as recklessly and wantonly as possible, so as to avoid any reduction in surplus value. Controls and environmental regulations are criticized as “job killers” and discarded, a not so subtle reminder that your ability to eat is dependent on their ability to profit.

But the cognitive dissonance of these conditions are painfully obvious, and Capital needs a compelling narrative that will support its ceaseless plunder.

It finds a willing if unlikely partner in the nascent American Christian movement that arose during the early to mid-20th century.

While Catholicism held back from full throated endorsement of the robber baron business model, the Christian fundamentalist and Evangelical movements exploded onto the scene with full endorsement.

In retrospect, the alliance between Christian fundamentalists, Evangelicals, and Capitalists should have been easy to foresee as inevitable. The Catholic Church’s long standing focus on the plight of the poor, and its ascendancy in American society became troubling to many on the Right. The size of the Catholic constituency began to grow within American culture to the extent that the dream of a parallel, Catholic society become feasible to implement, and in fact the Catholic Church did just this, with thousands of Catholic schools built and staffed by (mostly) clergy and nuns.

In and of itself this parallel culture of a differing and more restrictive moral fabric was not especially concerning to conservatives, the focus on the plight of the poor however was very disturbing.

After all, several hundred years of caring for the poor, providing sanctuary within Church buildings, sheltering refugees, etc., one might begin to ask why are these people here, and what conditions exist to precipitate this plight.

And there are more than a few folks who would very much like that these questions not be asked- because they are very afraid of the answers.

In response, the Right girded its loins to prepare for a campaign of discrediting and aggressive preventative measures, posturing against recognizing systematic exploitation of the poor, and eventually, applying the same tactics to environmental exploitation as well. In this fashion, fundamentalist and Evangelical Christians founded a counter offensive against the as yet unspoken undercurrent of Marxist underpinnings buried deep within Catholic theology.

As chronicled in Princeton professor Kevin Kruse’s book “One Nation under God, How Corporate America invented Christianity”, Capital, fearful of the burgeoning support for New Deal policies, began to associate itself with Christianity to establish a moral imperative for so-called free market business practices.

Back in the 1930s, business leaders found themselves on the defensive. Their public prestige had plummeted with the Great Crash; their private businesses were under attack by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal from above and labor from below. To regain the upper hand, corporate leaders fought back on all fronts. They waged a figurative war in statehouses and, occasionally, a literal one in the streets; their campaigns extended from courts of law to the court of public opinion. But nothing worked particularly well until they began an inspired public relations offensive that cast capitalism as the handmaiden of Christianity.

The two had been described as soul mates before, but in this campaign they were wedded in pointed opposition to the “creeping socialism” of the New Deal. The federal government had never really factored into Americans’ thinking about the relationship between faith and free enterprise, mostly because it had never loomed that large over business interests. But now it cast a long and ominous shadow.

Every Christian should oppose the totalitarian trends of the New Deal.

It wasn’t until Billy Graham mobilized the Evangelical right in the early fifties that the movement really took off.

They all believed religiosity, if widely and officially deployed, would be a mighty weapon in the battle against collectivist liberals at home and Communists abroad. As their ally, Billy Graham, preached in 1951 at one of his ever popular crusades, Americans urgently needed to rededicate themselves to “the rugged individualism that Christ brought” to the world.

Accordingly, throughout the 1930s and ’40s, corporate leaders marketed a new ideology that combined elements of Christianity with an anti-federal libertarianism. Powerful business lobbies like the United States Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers led the way, promoting this ideology’s appeal in conferences and P.R. campaigns. Generous funding came from prominent businessmen, from household names like HarveyFirestone, Conrad Hilton, E. F. Hutton, Fred Maytag and Henry R. Luce to lesser-known leaders at U.S. Steel, General Motors and DuPont.

Rev. James W. Fifield, pastor of the elite First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, led the way in championing a new union of faith and free enterprise. “The blessings of capitalism come from God,” he wrote. “A system that provides so much for the common good and happiness must flourish under the favor of the Almighty.”

Christianity, in Mr. Fifield’s interpretation, closely resembled capitalism, as both were systems in which individuals rose or fell on their own. The welfare state, meanwhile, violated most of the Ten Commandments. It made a “false idol” of the federal government, encouraged Americans to covet their neighbors’ possessions, stole from the wealthy and, ultimately, bore false witness by promising what it could never deliver.

This malignant coupling of commerce and Christianity was hugely successful, culminating with the addition of the words “In God We Trust” on all US paper currency in 1957. The stage was set for the usurpation of Christian principles with Capitalist principles, as the saints and martyrs of Christendom were exchanged for the imprint of US president’s faces on US currency.

The problem with focusing on the plight of the poor is that sooner or later, the threads of class consciousness begin to emerge.

The rise to prominence of Latin America within the Catholic Church in the ’60’s and ’70’s brought forward a disruption to the fundamentalist juggernaut operating at full steam in North America.

Led by Gustavo Gutierrez and other Catholic intellectuals, the nascent movement of liberation theology emerged, informed by the subtle undercurrent of Marxist class struggle embedded in Orthodox Catholicism.

At its core, liberation theology re-emphasizes Catholicism from the perspective of the poor.

A more detailed examination of the principles of liberation theology nets some surprising tenements. It turns out much of the first few centuries of Church teaching viewed the poor in a much more sympathetic light, and directly associated exploitation as causality for the condition, and further, assigned a series of accusations of sinfulness at to those who were doing the exploiting.

Hence, one of the primary missions of the Catholic Church was not just to eradicate sin, and to provide recompense for those that succumb, but importantly, to side with and defend the exploited.

The underpinnings of this renewed focus on the poor from early Church teaching reveals that the response to poverty from those more fortunate, should not be just charity giving from surplus, but giving from sustenance as well. In other words, personal sacrifice, but also a rejection of material possessions even to the point of personal suffering.

Further, liberation theology makes a significant breakthrough in our understanding of right and wrong, it legitimizes the concept that sin is not just an act of individual moral failure, it can also be an act of organizational failure, e.g. not only can people sin but institutions, governments, and economic systems can also be sinful in their very existence and practice.

These points may seem obvious, but they represent a profound contradiction within the mainstay of Christian Conservativism off all stripes, which demands fealty to the rigid dictates of individuality, only individuals can sin and therefore only individuals have accountability.

This represents an existential threat to right wing Christianity, and as easily anticipated, the full court propaganda press goes into warp drive to head off any traction that may be had by such musings. These arguments are particularly troubling to American Christians in general, and Catholics in particular, as these types of viewpoints obliterate and contradict the central thesis of America’s religious consolidation with Capitalism. Indeed, the National Review published an article “The secret roots of liberation theology” which claims this was concocted by the Russian KGB. We just can’t have this gaining any momentum, so one should expect a flurry of these types of smear articles as the Pope’s encyclical becomes more widely distributed.

This does symbolize a renewed battle of ideologies chaired by strange bedfellows, now apparently led by a new champion, the Catholic Church

Is the Church struggling for relevancy? Is an activist posture forthcoming that activates 1 billion lumpen proletariat into the vanguard, through a coupling of class consciousness, ecological destruction, and limits to growth?

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The Red Pope

Nikki Manaj’s preposterous attire symbolizes the tongue and cheek rebuttal of a “Red Pope”, as a communist sympathizer who embodies in his recent encyclical, a call to “un-American” action theories, a Pope who overextends his position and segues into science, economics, and other topics far afield of his domain expertise.

After all, he calls for an end to endless growth, rampant consumerism, excessive consumption by the wealthy, and cessation of environmental destruction.

How dare he!

Everyone knows the American dream, that indefatigable strain of individuality, the boot strap mentality to step over every obstacle at any and all costs, that deepest reliance and valorization on the individual, this as anyone knows, is the very cornerstone of spirituality, after all God wants you to be strong and rich!

In the meantime, economic powers continue to justify the current global system where priority tends to be given to speculation and the pursuit of financial gain, which fail to take the context into account, let alone the effects on human dignity and the natural environment. Here we see how environmental deterioration and human and ethical degradation are closely linked. Many people will deny doing anything wrong because distractions constantly dull our consciousness of just how limited and finite our world really is. As a result, “whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule”.

A challenge to the free market ideology? Why, this is blasphemy. But we have seen similar observations in the previous exhortation, wherein the consumerist free markets were challenged for the first time with papal authority. This encyclical, however, goes much, much further.

To be sure, most of the controversy and commentary on ‘Laudato Si’, is focused on the destruction of the environment. Readers of this blog will find nothing new or interesting in these claims, as they are self evident, and although they are a strong and recurring theme of the encyclical, I find other elements much more interesting.

Perhaps the most powerful thrust of this Pope’s directive is the restating of Christian priorities from social to economic. The Christian right has seized on the culture wars of women’s reproductive rights, same sex marriage, women in the priesthood, etc. as not only central issues, but the very backbone of a ideological spectrum that extends to denial of racism and denial of climate change. These superficial cause celebres, distract and deflect attention away from critical issues and rely on principles of substitution to activate fundamentalist solidarity.

In contradiction to these movements, the current Papal encyclical as well as the previous exhortation resets the priorities to elevate inequality, climate change, and ecological destruction as a by-product of value production, as the key topics of concern.

This substantially deflates the Christian Right’s standing and values, and sets into motion a conflict and dialogue that ultimately may not end well.

These top level contradictions quickly devolve into further disagreement, especially in subjects such as property ownership.

We are not God. The earth was here before us and it has been given to us. This allows us to respond to the charge that Judaeo-Christian thinking, on the basis of the Genesis account which grants man “dominion” over the earth (cf. Gen 1:28), has encouraged the unbridled exploitation of nature by painting him as domineering and destructive by nature. This is not a correct interpretation of the Bible as understood by the Church. Although it is true that we Christians have at times incorrectly interpreted the Scriptures, nowadays we must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures. The biblical texts are to be read in their context, with an appropriate hermeneutic, recognizing that they tell us to “till and keep” the garden of the world (cf. Gen 2:15). “Tilling” refers to cultivating, ploughing or working, while “keeping” means caring, protecting, overseeing and preserving. This implies a relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings and nature. Each community can take from the bounty of the earth whatever it needs for subsistence, but it also has the duty to protect the earth and to ensure its fruitfulness for coming generations. “The earth is the Lord’s” (Ps 24:1); to him belongs “the earth with all that is within it” (Dt 10:14). Thus God rejects every claim to absolute ownership: “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me” (Lev 25:23).

I’m guessing John Locke missed this part.

But the real issue, long since lost in Capital’s co-opting of biblical principles is the notion of an equity position for all inhabitants.

One of the more interesting comments in the encyclical, although not covered extensively, is the concept of a Jubilee, a long standing biblical reference to a resetting of the ownership economy approximately every 50 years.

……. Finally, after seven weeks of years, which is to say forty-nine years, the Jubilee was celebrated as a year of general forgiveness and “liberty throughout the land for all its inhabitants” (cf. Lev 25:10). This law came about as an attempt to ensure balance and fairness in their relationships with others and with the land on which they lived and worked. At the same time, it was an acknowledgment that the gift of the earth with its fruits belongs to everyone. Those who tilled and kept the land were obliged to share its fruits, especially with the poor, with widows, orphans and foreigners in their midst: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very border, neither shall you gather the gleanings after the harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner” (Lev 19:9-10).

Yet it would also be mistaken to view other living beings as mere objects subjected to arbitrary human domination. When nature is viewed solely as a source of profit and gain, this has serious consequences for society. This vision of “might is right” has engendered immense inequality, injustice and acts of violence against the majority of humanity, since resources end up in the hands of the first comer or the most powerful: the winner takes all. Completely at odds with this model are the ideals of harmony, justice, fraternity and peace……….

Whether believers or not, we are agreed today that the earth is essentially a shared inheritance, whose fruits are meant to benefit everyone. For believers, this becomes a question of fidelity to the Creator, since God created the world for everyone. Hence every ecological approach needs to incorporate a social perspective Catechism of the Catholic Church, which takes into account the fundamental rights of the poor and the underprivileged. The principle of the subordination of private property to the universal destination of goods, and thus the right of everyone to their use, is a golden rule of social conduct and “the first principle of the whole ethical and social order”. The Christian tradition has never recognized the right to private property as absolute or inviolable, and has stressed the social purpose of all forms of private property. Saint John Paul II forcefully reaffirmed this teaching, stating that “God gave the earth to the whole human race for the sustenance of all its members, without excluding or favoring anyone”. These are strong words. He noted that “a type of development which did not respect and promote human rights – personal and social, economic and political, including the rights of nations and of peoples – would not be really worthy of man”. He clearly explained that “the Church does indeed defend the legitimate right to private property, but she also teaches no less clearly that there is always a social mortgage on all private property, in order that goods may serve the general purpose that God gave them”.

Consequently, he maintained, “it is not in accord with God’s plan that this gift be used in such a way that its benefits favor only a few”. This calls into serious question the unjust habits of a part of humanity.

This would appear to be a pretty straightforward indictment of the rentier class, again with disruptive conclusions regarding property rights.

The natural environment is a collective good, the patrimony of all humanity and the responsibility of everyone. If we make something our own, it is only to administer it for the good

If we do not, we burden our consciences with the weight of having denied the existence of others. That is why the New Zealand bishops asked what the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” means when “twenty percent of the world’s population consumes resources at a rate that robs the poor nations and future generations of what they need to survive”.

Clearly there is a pattern emerging centering on strong critique of our socially accepted concept of property rights, linkage to ecology and use for the greater good, and the continuing acceleration of vast inequality.

With this linkage established, the encyclical moves into discussion of root cause responsibility, which is named generally as “consumerism” but when explored in more detail we see commentary specific to excessive consumption and overproduction.

Politics must not be subject to the economy, nor should the economy be subject to the dictates of an efficiency-driven paradigm of technocracy. Today, in view of the common good, there is urgent need for politics and economics to enter into a frank dialogue in the service of life, especially human life.

Saving banks at any cost, making the public pay the price, foregoing a firm commitment to reviewing and reforming the entire system, only reaffirms the absolute power of a financial system, a power which has no future and will only give rise to new crises after a slow, costly and only apparent recovery. The financial crisis of 2007-08 provided an opportunity to develop a new economy, more attentive to ethical principles, and new ways of regulating speculative financial practices and virtual wealth. But the response to the crisis did not include rethinking the outdated criteria which continue to rule the world. Production is not always rational, and is usually tied to economic variables which assign to products a value that does not necessarily correspond to their real worth. This frequently leads to an overproduction of some commodities, with unnecessary impact on the environment and with negative results on regional economies.

In perhaps one of the most powerful passages in the encyclical, the endless cycle of consumerism, inequality, and environmental destruction is laid bare:

Since the market tends to promote extreme consumerism in an effort to sell its products, people can easily get caught up in a whirlwind of needless buying and spending. Compulsive consumerism is one example of how the techno-economic paradigm affects individuals. Romano Guardini had already foreseen this: “The gadgets and technics forced upon him by the patterns of machine production and of abstract planning mass man accepts quite simply; they are the forms of life itself. To either a greater or lesser degree mass man is convinced that his conformity is both reasonable and just”.

This paradigm leads people to believe that they are free as long as they have the supposed freedom to consume. But those really free are the minority who wield economic and financial power. Amid this confusion, postmodern humanity has not yet achieved a new self-awareness capable of offering guidance and direction, and this lack of identity is a source of anxiety. We have too many means and only a few insubstantial ends.

The current global situation engenders a feeling of instability and uncertainty, which in turn becomes “a seedbed for collective selfishness”. When people become self-centred and self-enclosed, their greed increases. The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume.

It becomes almost impossible to accept the limits imposed by reality. In this horizon, a genuine sense of the common good also disappears. As these attitudes become more widespread, social norms are respected only to the extent that they do not clash with personal needs. So our concern cannot be limited merely to the threat of extreme weather events, but must also extend to the catastrophic consequences of social unrest. Obsession with a consumerist lifestyle, above all when few people are capable of maintaining it, can only lead to violence and mutual destruction.

I believe the encyclical has touched on some critical founding principles in its pursuit of re-establishing relevance to the Catholic Church. First, considerable text has been devoted to the walking back, rehabilitating even, the concept of Dominion over Nature. Much of the previous definition had been exclusionary of any meaningful deification of Nature as noted earlier, and was ultimately co-opted by Capital to allow a profit driven land and resource grab with appalling veracity. Coupled with Evangelical and fundamentalist Christian support, this was cemented into American thinking and remains a formidable intellectual obstacle.

Will the encyclical succeed in resetting environmental priorities to a restorative, rather than profit driven cycle? Of course the answer is no, and even if it could, it is likely too late.

Considerable text has also been allocated to the discussion of the integration of science and technology into Church teachings. This represents a good step forward, although it took quite some time (400 years!) to come up with a way to reconcile science with the necessary mysticism of a religion. Rather than considering science as the enemy (with apologies to Galileo) the pope has instead embraced science to ultimately support a morality statement in mobilizing against climate destruction. I think this is a pretty clever way to take the position.

If I permit myself a bit of altruism, one might see in the encyclical a roadmap to a different world, a different place and a different outcome. Surely if this prescription were followed as suggested for 21 centuries we would have a better place? I think the answer to this is yes, but it requires a revisionist perspective, to overlook the 16 centuries of power dominance and various and sundry atrocities of the Church, the take-no-prisoners approach to leadership which contributed greatly to the world we have now.

But I suspect the greatest impact of the message is not directed to the 20% of the world participating in excessive consumption, who will likely never change of their own volition.

Perhaps it is meant for the 1 billion who are not. The 1 billion who will bear the brunt of the effects of climate change. What might they do with this information?

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The dawn of the second day of the Easter Triduum came for me with a strange mission- stewardship of the Vigil Candle. As a 12 year old altar boy, I had been bestowed the symbolic responsibility of insuring the lighted Vigil candle remained that way during my shift.

The lighted paschal candle symbolizes the presence of the Holy Spirit, in that darkest of days between Crucifixion on the cross (Good Friday) and the Resurrection (Easter Sunday). As a lay person one might conjure this a period of instability, indeterminate, a body lying in state with no clear connection to either world, an ethereal space between the earthly bounds of sin and exploitation and the soul cleansing transition to afterlife.

The fragility of the flickering candle light represents that it can go either way.

In the pre-dawn hours I walked alone the familiar route from my house to the church. Alongside the church was the entrance to the priest’s chambers, down a long path bordered by Calla lilies and lush elephant ferns to the rear of the church. Inside chambers was a veritable forest of dark baroque woodwork, neatly organzied apothecaries, hanging vestments and the strong lingering odor of incense. There was a small closet with altar boy gowns, it was first come/first serve to find a usable size, and I was fortunate enough to find one that fit.

I was noticed by the poor sap with the earlier shift, he needed no encouragement to leave his post on the altar, shed his gown quickly and head for the door.

I took his place on the altar, kneeling for what promised to be a long three hours with my eye on the flickering candle.

For a 12 year old, spending the pre-dawn hours alone in a darkened church, lit only by flickering candles under the watchful eye of various saints and church luminaries, is not an assignment that one relishes. The mind wanders, reflecting first on memorized phrases from ritualized catechism, from other worldly repose the minutes and hours while away to more traditional boyhood daydreaming- anything to stave off the fear of impending doom.

Shocked from my reverie by a sharp jab, I turned to see an elderly woman poking me frantically. There was no speaking allowed on the altar, she was no doubt one of a small army of lay persons that brought flowers and attended daily early mass- apparently from lack of anything better to do. She gestured emphatically towards the vigil candle.

In 2007, the IPCC told us emissions must peak by 2015 to stay within 2 °C of warming.

In 2014, the IPCC told us emissions must peak by 2030 to stay within 2 °C of warming.

The IPCC says we can do this because of “negative-emissions bio-energy” for which no such technology exists, and the kicker is that they say we will need 1 billion acres of NEW farmland by 2100. One billion acres of farmland is about the size of India. The acronym for this fantasy is BECCS. The real acronym is BS.

This will happen when all our new solar panels and wind mills stop working and become expensive junk we can’t afford to replace or recycle in times of shortages in water, food, energy, minerals and civility.

…because in 25 years earth will go into a planetary ecological state shift and enter into runaway, irreversible, unstoppable mass extinction. The good news is that know one will know exactly when we will pass the tipping point for runaway extinction until it is too late.

Related to the concept of Dominion is the also stated premise of us having to “subdue” the Earth (Genesis 1:28). However, if you look at the 1535 translation as conveyed in vol. XVII of the multi-volume Oxford English Dictionary, it’s stated that “subdue” can also mean “To bring (land) under cultivation.”

The conversation needs to get more sophisticated from here. The Catholic hierarchy is in a shrewd position to diagnose the class struggle. To me, it is ultimately sharing. This will probably not forestall the phase changes in the earth chemistry due to carbon burning.

IMO in this area of the universe there is only one conduit into heaven and it passes through this earth. Destroy the earth and you destroy the nexus. There is no other way into a state of sufficient complexity but through the long evolutionary trail of the ecosystem. And now that we stand in awe of the infinite, at that point in which we can even contemplate God, we destroy the only conduit that leads us there for just a moment’s worth of temporal pleasure or to seek power through technology. The nexus should be treasured and nurtured to be a staging ground for untold future generations passage. Human life is extremely short in contrast to the infinite duration of God and it goes unrecognized for the most part. We’re too busy being base animals preoccupied with satisfying innate desires, not exploring the potential for the greatest reward. As we grow in awareness and come closer to God, we get closer to and a part of the infinite where death has no meaning. We live forever with God even as our bodies are returned to the earth’s circulation to support new generations. Perhaps we are meant to fail, but somewhere in the universe there must remain a beacon of success, a highly conscious manifestation of God, a planet where sentient inhabitants have renounced materialism to find nourishment on a higher plane of existence. Perhaps we can become that place and perhaps not, but it’s well past time that we pull out all the stops to put our house in order.

Regrettably the malignant growth institutions will likely subvert any conversion away from egotism, base desire, mass-consumption, living for the moment and eventual self-annihilation.

I don’t mean to be offensive to either you or Mike, but I think the concept of god or heaven is an illusion that has done much more damage than good, by devaluing this Earth because there is a superior place that we will be going to, and therefore the trashing of the planet is of less concern, at least in the minds of many.
Not that what I think has any influence on the unfolding tragedy.

All the world’s religions have been hypocritical to some degree since they are, after all, a human construct. Treating the Earth as sacrosanct and, dare I say, deifying it is the only way a sustainable civilization could have been developed, but this goes against genetic drives to reproduce and expand as a species. Capitalism encourages the basest urges for power, money, materialism, control, etc and it is the dominant religion of the world today:

I don’t see God and heaven and creation in anthropomorphic terms, which is a sort of default for most people which hides a reality that perhaps they can not otherwise perceive or make sense of. The reality is found in nature but the ideology has been doctored to allow easy mental digestion. In most cases these words can be applied to the religions and churches:

1. Luke 23:34: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.

Like most things the ultimate reward has been imagined in such a way as to provide a maximum of serotonin and dopamine reward and release from anxiety. In the meantime we have been involved for tens of thousands of years in a technological effort to extend both quantity and length of human life at the expense of all else, like a cancer. Human cellular cancers try to grow beyond their parent system and it always ends badly. Humans “evolved” in a thermodynamically favored direction that results in ecosystem pathology. Humans may have been expelled from the Garden of Eden with their technology and associated knowledge, but then they turned around and destroyed the garden/ecosystem in a hopeless effort to escape death. Cancers do wonderful things for themselves, for awhile, but eventually they kill the balanced systems from which they arise by physically interfering with, consuming and poisoning it.

Inability to accept the mystic experience is more than an intellectual handicap. Lack of awareness of the basic unity of organism and environment is a serious and dangerous hallucination.

For in a civilization equipped with immense technological power, the sense of alienation between man and nature leads to the use of technology in a hostile spirit—-to the “conquest” of nature instead of intelligent co-operation with nature.

“I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware. Nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself. We are creatures that shouldn’t exist under natural law… The honorable thing for our species to do is to stop reproducing and walk hand in hand, brothers and sisters, into extinction — one last midnight.”

Our high degree of consciousness I think is a result of our higher intelligence. My chickens and my dogs are conscious, just not to the degree that people are, so the more evolved, the smarter, the more self aware. Our destructive nature results from our well adapted survival instincts. We are just more successful than other species in sucking the life out of our habitat.

To those who understand the hugely influential historical role the catholic church has had in thwarting all efforts by the ecologically knowledgeable to bring population control to the forefront of concerns of governments around the world, this encyclical from the pope will be received with bitter regret. Too little, Too late. While he has accepted the science of climate disruption, it is still laced with scientific ignorance. As always with the catholic church, dogma trumps science. There would not be one ecologist on the planet who thinks that recommending a maximum of three children per woman is a scientifically sound position. Every nation on Earth is grossly overpopulated. Recommending a maximum of one child per woman, to bring abut a reduction of the population, would be the papal recommendation if he was serious about addressing our desperate situation. Lamenting the deplorable environmental destruction and loss of magnificent biodiversity is all very well, but let us not forget the many who fought against the power of the catholic church and who knew that this exact situation would be the result of the policies the catholic church fought so hard to implement.

No, I meant what I wrote. Every nation is grossly overpopulated. I think if we did a survey of ecologists, all would recommend a maximum of one child per woman rather than three, to bring the population down as quickly as humanely possible.
I remember reading a post by George Mobus about a year or so ago where he listed some policies he would like to see implemented in order to have some chance of escaping our current desperate situation. One was that no woman be allowed to reproduce for the next twenty years. Not much chance of that being implemented.
Admittedly, there is not much chance of a one child per woman policy being implemented either, but it is in the realm of the possible if we got serious.

In my last blog post, there was a video entitled “The Choice, Part One” which talked about the fact that we are transitioning toward a more unstable climate marked by extreme weather events. Here is part 2:

Part 2 discusses why the governments of the world will be unable to respond to the catastrophe at hand. At best, we will see an additional 40ppm of CO2 added to the atmosphere and at worst 80ppm or higher depending on feedbacks which will increase the degradation of two key CO2 sinks and oxygenators of the planet —trees and phytoplankton. The IPCC data currently being used for emission reduction and risk assessment is out of date, incomplete, and does not reflect the true dangers we are facing. The following will not be considered at the next UNF Convention on Climate Change in December of this year:

1.) Exponential decline of Arctic Sea Ice and the resultant catastrophic changes in weather patterns as well as methane venting

2.) The observed changes in Jet Streams and weather patterns, critical for modern agriculture, that are causing megadroughts and massive floods

3.) The imminent threat of a world food crisis triggered by the prior two manifestations of anthropogenic climate change

4.) Projections for sea level rise will be understated as the latest findings of ice melt from Greenland and Antarctica will not be considered

The inevitable result from our belated and grossly inadequate response to the unfolding climate crisis will be what military bodies have long predicted —resource wars. We are setting the stage for the collapse of modern civilization.

Ha, Ha!!! A Hedge Fund. Of course! What other solution would capitalism have.

Predictions about how horrific things will be seem to be fairly easy to make as they slowly but surely come true. No matter how well laid the plans, it’s those pesky solutions that continuously elude us.

All over the world, throughout time, humanity has only ever agreed on just 2 things. Money and Life After Death, neither of which are real and are human constructs to answer a need. I will despise my desire for life everlasting until the very last second of my life.

Why We Can’t Fix Anything Or,
Is The Road To Hell Paved With Hemp?

In the early years of the 20th century millions of black folks in the Congo were murdered for control of the rubber tree plantations that were needed to make car tires. Cars were the latest greatest thing. If you tell a 50 year old man he has to give up his car to save life on earth, he’ll tell you to go to hell.

In the early years of the 21st century millions of black folks in the Congo were murdered for control of the exotic minerals our smartphones need to work properly. Smartphones are the latest greatest thing. If you tell a 20 year old they have to give up their smartphones to save life on earth, they will tell you to go to hell.

During the 100 years between all the mass murders in the Congo, America and Europeans sold millions of tons of guns and ammo to poor countries all around the world. If you tell an American he has to give up his guns to save life on earth, he’ll tell you to go to hell.

Renewable energy products have a life-cycle time of 30 years, after which they will all have to be replaced during a time of food, water, energy and mineral shortages. If you tell green energy boosters they have to give up renewable energy to save life on earth, they will tell you to go to hell.

Humans and our livestock occupy 97% of the land vertebrate biomass on earth. Humans and livestock consume 40% of annual land chlorophyll production and caused 80% of land vertebrate species extinction. If you tell a meat lover he has to give up meat to save life on earth, he will tell you to go to hell.

James Hansen and several renowned conservation biologists composed an open letter to Green NGOs begging them to stop their opposition to nuclear power in order to save all life on earth. He was told to go to hell.

http://phys.org/news/2013-11-experts-nuclear-power.html
Sometime in less than 50 years, life on earth will pass the tipping point for runaway, unstoppable, irreversible, cascading mass extinction collapse and because climate change is only 1 out of 6 direct drivers of this event, then renewable energy will do nothing in time to save all life on earth and I will be told to go to hell.

You can blame capitalism, big banks and monstrous corporate conspiracies for the near term collapse of life on earth, but these things could not exist without us, and that is why we are all going straight to hell.

On this site, since there is agreement that climate change is real, and that we are past the point of redemption, it would be nice if there was advice on how to make the comming doom a less painful experience. Maybe some info on how to get and stockpile substances to alter the perception of fear and death. Maybe we could alter our perception and become delusional like the fundamentalists and see the end as God comming to save us.

“The reality is that we are starting to lose control which is bad enough, but even worse is that we have no official comprehension or acknowledgment and matters are only going to deteriorate faster as time moves on…”

“Never before has a Roman pontiff warned so starkly of existential threats to Earth’s environment — our “common home”, in the Pope’s words — and human civilization. And never before has a pope drawn so resolutely from science, a sphere that has long been considered irreconcilable with essential Catholic religious beliefs.

To be sure, Laudato si’ (Praise Be) is a faith-based document that views Earth as God’s creation, something for humans to “fill and subdue”. But science is remarkably prominent in the letter. The Pope proclaims in no uncertain terms that the climate change now underway is caused by human activity and that the burning of fossil fuels must stop.” – Nature “Why the Pope’s letter on climate change matters”

The oil barons and their lackeys have declared war on the Pope because he wants to stop their war against the Earth.

Is it possible that civilizations are always doomed to collapse, not only because of resource depletion, but because of the innate tendency of humans to compete, to want to win in the dominance/wealth hierarchy. The level of cooperation, as found amongst cells within a body can never exist in the competitive technological setting. Considerable sacrifice of one’s ambitions is not an innate characteristic of man’s behavior and any restrictions are soon overcome by cheating and deception. Therefore it is likely impossible for a human civilization to have the behavioral characteristics that would lead to a cessation of growth, absolute cooperation, and sustainability. Instead the model is cancerous with numerous malignant subpopulations struggling to maximize personal wealth, power and success. The prognosis is terminal, competitive arrival at the limits to growth, warfare and collapse.

In times of war, we do seem to “pull together” and cooperation is magnified, but this is only a temporary state that soon gives way to a competition that inexorably moves in the direction of more growth and wealth accumulation so that individuals may increase their chances at successful reproduction and survival. Cooperation is not a voluntary state but is created by some outside force(s) that work upon the genome and phenotype over long periods of time. The cells of the human body only cooperate because they are clones of each other and must form tissues that are able to acquire nourishment while avoiding predation. Even this close cooperation does not preclude cancerous conversion.

Bacterial colonies, likely made up of clones, will go to war with other microbes in the competition for survival. http://www.livescience.com/22972-bacteria-team-up-antibiotic-war.html The closest we can get to this kind of cooperation is in the small scale tribe where everyone is closely related and intense cooperation and altruism can form. Altruism in the nation state is mostly a reflexive carry-over from the past when small bands sharing DNA lived and died together. Showing altruism towards the abstraction of the nation-state or some flag identity marker, is a hijacking of this past behavioral trait. Next time, before you volunteer to serve the United Banks of America, make sure the suits at Goldman Sachs turn over all their wealth for the good of the country. When a force that will likely lessen cooperation amongst a society of humans is incipient (like economic collapse and loss of savings) then a stimulus that results in greater cooperation must often be used to counterbalance the potential chaos. At the level of the nation-state that stimulus is war.

The technological system of which humans are a key component, is evolving pretty much as the first organic system did. We’re evolving and aren’t even aware of what is going on. Unfortunately, this new technological system was damaging enough with primitive tools, like a slow growing cancer, but when it tapped into fossil fuels it really grew fast and metastasized rapidly. It still wants to grow and most humans want to find a place in its comfy structures (they don’t recognize their temporary nature), even though the new specialized pigeonholes for humans may drive them insane.

It’s unlikely that the technological system will supercede the organic one, but rather it will destroy itself by undermining the conditions essential for one of its key ingredients – humans. How would you like to live your life, free roaming in a healthy ecosystem or incarcerated in a cancer cell that eats and shits ecosystem like there’s no tomorrow. I’m sure many people would prefer the temporary but considerable advantages of the cancer. Perhaps we have no choice since the cancer takes over all territory and eliminates the habitat of free-living humans, or incorporates them into its cannibalistic metabolic “machinery”. I’ll have to read some Toynbee so I can get his take on things.

When the technological system goes there will still be humans that are technologically capable. No regression. What will they do? Start over? With what? Perhaps technological capability will become a drag, a non-performer, negative EROEI, an appendix or appendage that’s no longer justified. If the future apes hang-out by the sea (not Fukushima) perhaps they’ll evolve fins and head out to sea, but the cetaceans would likely vengefully brutalize us. We really do need to lose the hands, then technology would pretty much just fade away permanently.

The technological system would have to substitute some sort of robot for humans and then it wouldn’t matter if it trashed the ecosystem. But why bother? So robots can stand around asking the eternal question “What is the meaning of life?” I guess one of the first lessons to be learned by any thinking entity is that life doesn’t need a meaning and has not destination.

When we cooperate in time of war, it is only in order to better compete against our enemies. That is why many leaders will create imagined enemies to bring people together to help thier cause. Communism worked great for the Military Industrial Complex.

Excellent post! I heard about Keven Kruze’s book a couple of months ago on NPR and it validated my suspicions about corporate propaganda. I posted a comment on this site in early May and every other site I could leave a comment about this book, because few seem to discuss how effective Right Wing propaganda has been in using religion as a tool for leading this country and others down a path of environmental destruction. There was also a huge propaganda campaign in the 70s and 80s prompted by the Powell Memo 1971, to fight the 60s counter culture movement. The Right has a strategy, what’s ours? The intellectuals on the left need to learn how to communicate with the masses, but it is easier to march lockstep when you are a fascist.

One description of Public Relations: “Getting people to buy something,not because they need it but because it will make them feel better.”
Political, Economic & Religious theologies have almost perfected the propaganda.

“We are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event,” said Gerardo Ceballos of the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, lead author of the Science Advances study. “If it is allowed to continue, life would take many millions of years to recover and our species itself would likely disappear early on.”

To the true NTE doomer there is never anything to celebrate except new evidence of his/her rock solid conviction that we are cooked for sure in the very near future. For her/him what others take to be good news is actually only proof of the depth of their hopium induced trance. So it is no surprise that for these folks the Pope’s recent encyclical was something between irrelevant and dangerously deluding. For most of them the Pope was committing the ultimate crime of giving hope to those living in a hopeless world. “Why aren’t all these folks with us here on the beach, we’ve got room for lots more?” Then they quickly conclude, “the poor saps – they just don’t get it.”

For those who may not be so convinced of the certainty of near term extinction, or have a considerably longer guess at how long we may be around, the memoir/article leading this thread is interesting. The author skillfully mixes reminiscences of his childhood in the Catholic Church with reminders of the truly horrible things done during the inquisition, the continuing teachings about birth control that contribute to over population, and other real and seriously negative teachings and actions of the Church through history. All of this I accept as real and true.

My impression is that in the end the author of this sensitive and beautifully written piece feels that the Church which betrayed his hopes as an innocent child and so many other souls over the centuries will never be able to atone for those sins or even fully admit them, and that in any case there is nothing that this Pope or anyone within this church can do to prevent our near term extinction.

For me, not being locked into total certainty about NTE, as really bad as things look – I find the appearance of this Pope and his message reflective, of his namesake Francis of Assisi, is a flicker of hope in a world that offers few such signs.

I agree with you that Pope Francis is a flicker of hope. Nothing is 100% bad. What about Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion; every action has an equal opposing action? I was raised Catholic which is where I received a good science education including evolution. In 10th grade biology, I learned about over population and environmental issues. The priests in my parish told us that the Pope was a good spiritual leader, but didn’t understand how hard it was to raise children and it was up to us to decide on birth control. No one I know of from my entire school had more than 2 children. We also had a diverse ethnicity of folks, not just your typical southern white Protestant. So in a way, my catholic upbringing opened my mind. My bad experiences came from the nuns, not priests. The nuns were hateful, especially towards non conformist girls. The Nuns probably hated thier life due to the fact that they were stupid enough to let the church brainwash them into being nuns.

It goes deeper than religion, because religion couldn’t exist without the congregations who support it. Ignorance = overpopulation.

It is winter here .We have been here (about 18 degrees south,900 metres altitude)
38 years and have not had a May and June anywhere near this warm. The mean minimum for June here is 11 degrees C, and we have had one minimum of 10, the rest between 12 and 17. The mango trees here normally start flowering from late August, yet this year,some are in flower already. I noticed a jaboticaba tree in flower yesterday. We have not had one flower in June before.They also normally start to flower around late August. We are hoping the dry season will not be too long,but with an El Nino in place,it probably will be.

I googled ponerogenisis and here is a quote I found from: https://theriseandfallofthehumanempire.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/psychopathy-ponerogenesis-and-pathocracy/;
“It seems, at the very least, that we are about to enter into a period of profound transition. It promises to be a time of unthinkable hardship, possibly leading to our extinction. On the other hand, a second possible scenario might produce a small number of human survivors who arise from the rubble, cleansed at last of that tyrant gene, to build a new world and the first human civilization.”

The flat earth character in the cartoon is the Heartland Institute, who is lobbying the Vatican to change it’s position on climate change on behalf of Exxon, Koch Bros, ect. Heartland also worked for Big Tobacco to deny science on health effects due to smoking.

And God placed his technological spore upon the fossil fuel petri dish and said, “Go forth and multiply.” And they took their primitive tools and cut into the flesh of the earth. They reduced and mapped the world and codified it to be worked upon and evolved to create even better tools with which to cannibalize their surroundings. The cells, the structures of technological civilization, metastasized in every direction where resources could support such growth. Food capturing enzymes poured forth from the cells including chainsaws, nets, guns, and distribution networks were laid down to move the bounty to the cells for further digestion. Growth was rapid and the systematic ape reveled in its creations, imagining itself to be unbounded by the laws of nature, unbounded by the limits of a finite planet. And then, suddenly, it was over as quickly as it had begun. The economic shamans, unschooled in the natural sciences, the ones that had danced drunkenly in the lights of the gas flares, believing in their own fictitious voodoo, disappeared as the edifice of greed began to crumble.

The great exothermic reaction finally reached a new state of equilibrium, or death, a cessation of movement and metabolism. Its bones and exoskeletons remained for many millennia. The technological cells stopped making technological enzymes and were quiet. The humans that once facilitated technological metabolism tried to meld back into the ecosystem which had largely been consumed and destroyed. Those that were not eliminated in the great pograms or from inter-tribal violence, died when industrial agriculture ceased production altogether. And strangely enough for a species that prided itself on being “intelligent” that’s how it all ended, no different than the course taken by the most primitive of organic life, the bacterium or renegade cancer cell growing temporarily in a rich but limited environment.

Beautifully written scenario of a possible/probable future. I imagine a more prolonged survival of scattered bands of hunter/gatherers, reenacting the long history of our species in reverse mode. Not all the way to living in the trees on a wounded planet, but still forgetting all but the most simple knowledge necessary for survival. Perhaps a fitful gesture here and there of a band establishing a village based on growing food, and even going as far as smelting metals once more, but soon fizzling out in its attempts to “evolve civilization” once more. What role the poisoning of the environment and the disruption of the climate might play is an open question. My cloudy crystal ball thus seems to hint at a longer more gradual fall from civ, and a longer persistence after. Not as stretched out as JMG imagines, but not as short as Guy is thinking. Basically there is no telling how it will all work out – that crystal ball is not only cloudy – it never did work that good anyway.

Of course prognosticators of extinction should beware of hidden hopium tainting either extreme view. Sudden near term extinctionists may be secretly wishing it was just all over and done with. Very long period estimators may be wishing we will be here forever. There is some consolation to be had with either view. Those in the middle ground however have to feel the crunch more intensely.

Well your 12 step hopium is in full swing, but what can one expect from a person who really can’t see through Baker (the chasm between her words and actions is wider than the jump Evel Knievel and the Snake River Jump he made years ago. As one who was witness (all this talk of bearing witness is pure BS to me) to this behavior you’ll have to take my word for it much like those who come out in public with anything that pushes our “heroes” off their pedestals).

On the JMG front please don’t forget to mention that everything he processes is through Asperger Syndrome that has a huge impact on what he is able to deal with without blowing his circuits.

Anyone wanting to make it through the “bottleneck” will probably be much like the capos/kapos who survived doing the horrendous acts all in the name of staying alive. No thanks I prefer not to see what winds up on the other side nor do I wish to find out how far I’m willing to go in to remain alive. I was convinced by Millgram and others long ago and have watched others rationalize behaviors that they claim they’d never do and now have fallen easily into lock step with the flow.

So, it will most likely not be the best of humanity that survives as any do, but we are close to that 1 degree now and look at how things are ramping up around the world. Just imagine at the 2 degree mark, let alone at the 4 degree mark.

I blow thru here
The music goes ’round and around
Whoa-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho
And it comes out here

I push the first valve down
The music goes down and around
Whoa-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho
And it comes out here

I push the middle valve down
The music goes down around below
Below, below, deedle-dee-ho-ho-ho
Listen to the jazz come out

I push the other valve down
The music goes ’round and around
Whoa-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho
And it comes out here

It becomes more evident each day that broad perspective is not a welcome sojourner in most human skulls. Even if they were able to make the most rudimentary connections leading to an unobstructed view of reality, a task few will undertake, it would be so emotionally troubling that a fairytale salve would have to be immediately applied. The cancer, the giver of dopamine great and small, can never let knowledge stand in the way of a good thing, there is just too much to be lost to the actors in the current metabolism. So it will go on until it can’t and even then failure will be blamed upon inadequate education, poor infrastructure, a weak military, illegal immigrants or some other nonsense.

Since they’ll never be able to arrive at the “this is what we are” conclusion, it seems apparent that they’ll never be able to arrive at “this is what we need to do.” plan. Events are moving much too fast in this final doubling period to even attempt any shift away from the default narratives. A fool’s errand.

The body’s core, the essential organs, are pulling all of the wealth from the periphery to temporarily maintain themselves which will leave ninety-five percent of the population without any options when the organs begin to fail. Accumulation of wealth in the periphery? Forget it. And opting out of the system will become very difficult. Each new law will make it more mandatory that you participate in supporting a flawed civilization that doesn’t have a chance in hell to survive. Meanwhile your trusted representatives will be playing footsie with the few select corporations. Why are a few large corporations allowed to swallow-up everything else? Control. It’s much easier to deal with a few dozen CEOs than it is to deal with many, many smaller entities. Fewer and bigger leverage points facilitate control and this is why you see conglomerates forming, swallowing smaller competition. Anyway, I don’t think there’s any further need to try and sway this bonehead species into taking a new direction. It seems that now energies will be more wisely spent in hard-ass survivalist mode in preparation for a punctuated equilibrium event which is already well underway.

When we discover and follow all the dark threads that spell doom for human culture, there comes a point where we have painted ourselves into a corner into which light if it existed would have no chance to penetrate. From there we have quit looking for a way out – our hopelessness has become a refuge. If an Angel of Light approached us promising a formula of deliverance we would tell it roughly to get the hell out and quit tormenting us. Hopelessness is our only safety now from the torments of what if? We are the lonely custodians of an ultimate fundamentalism of doom, from which all questions and uncertainties are banned. We have died before we have died. Our shroud is self-woven, our tomb built block by carefully laid block, our reasoning is flawless and permanent. Now there is only the waiting for death.

I agree. Having done some botany and growing and selling plants for a living, I was familiar with a lot of the plants he discussed there. We also have a Quesnelia marmorata selection growing here which was collected by the person he dedicated that book to, Tim Plowman.
Another very good book by Davis is ‘Into the Silence’ though on a completely different topic. Very well written and insightful.

If you do a careful inventory, you’ll find an incredible number of invasive species, at least here in Kentucky. English plantain, kudzu, Japanese knotweed…………………… To the uninitiated observer they’re just weeds. I had a botany professor that was just horrified at the sight of a weed trimmers nonchalantly whacking away at the biodiversity. I think he specialized in studying the Giant Corpse Flower in Indonesia. The world was a different place before the cancer became so advanced. The bulldozers plow through the trees, roads are built and the conversion and extraction begins. I would stop the growth process dead in its tracks if I had the means, but I don’t. It will eventually come to an end naturally and humans will be up the creek without a paddle. Speaking of corpse flowers, we made a mistake of planting Manhattan Euonymus whose flowers attract flies, around our porch. They were a little stinky but we had contests during the summer to see who could kill the most of the bothersome flies. Extra points for biting flies and green and blue bottle flies.

Since that time the cancer has grown tremendously and continues unabated and as the (lactic) acid builds in the ecosystem the phytoplankton can no longer form shells but the cancer continues to grow and the ecosystem becomes cachexic. The cancer will continue to grow as we await the final signs of impending ecosystem death.

You’re real hung up on the cancer analogy. It’ll probably suck to realize your wrong. Unlike cancer, which kills its host, humans won’t be killing the planet – just themselves.But since you’re so convinced humans are cancerous, I guess you won’t mind getting it. Keep on beating the cancer drum. The corpse still has some skin on it.

Invasive species. No end to the horror stories from Australia. One recent example is
Gamba grass, a very vigorous pasture grass introduced from Africa. If it is not grazed
heavily in the wet season, it quickly grows up to three metres high,and when burnt in the dry season, the heat generated by the large biomass kills any Eucalyptus trees it is growing under. Large areas of Eucalyptus in the Northern Territory have been killed,and it is now illegal to sell seed,but it will probably be impossible to eradicate.

Gotcha. I’m pretty lucky in that spouse is on the same page. Wishing you well with the move. I appreciate the work you do in putting together the site, btw.

Check out “greening the desert”/permaculture techniques if you end up with a bit of garden space. Some amazing things you can do, even if it’s all only in the short run for all of us. Yeah, the ‘ecovillage’ is only a stop-gap at this point, a way to feel somewhat less schizophrenic.

Except according to the editor of Communities Magazine and anyone whose ever attended the annual Communities Conference down at Twin Oaks one can see why 9 out of 10 (and I believe it’s more like 9.9 out of 10) attempts at community fail.

If you’ve been watching the attempt at certain people relocating to Belize I can clearly see they’ve already started marching down the wrong road. Perhaps some people ought to stop labeling themselves as “teachers” and start realizing they are students as well.

Really for people going around trying to teach (and what are they actually teaching for they never stop to see if anyone is really learning or paying attention) this group is doomed to failure.

I found it funny that a single person purchased the land and the “dream” is to be a democratic, egalitarian grouping but the one who purchased the land has veto rights over all decisions. What’s even funnier is that they don’t want a patriarchy, yet it’s already become a matriarchy and shows the same flaws as when the men run society.

If you’ve got enough money it’s the best bet to do it own your own and run your little fiefdom. Most communal living from 60’s were run badly and few want to go on record about this. Part of this came out in Adam Curtis’s “All By the Grace of Living Machine” documentary and more came out in a radio interview he did where he spoke of conversations he wasn’t allowed to put into the show that pulled the covers back on the “egalitarian” image they all have tried to project all these years.

By the way, Twin Oaks is a community that refuses to discuss the current situation that is unfolding. Most of their structures are mold infested and dirty, falling apart because of lack of planning for maintenance. Sadly it’s homophobic for the most part and many people (even living in a small community) try to avoid saying hello or speaking with each other as they pass each other while walking. If that’s what you want it’s the place for you.

Tried talking to the folks at Twin Oaks regarding what will they do if their businesses (seeds, tofu, and hammocks) fail in the coming days, but they would have none of it anymore than those living in NYC would. Just won’t happen.

The same situation (manifesting in different ways) seems to run across the board at every community, so far from utopia (which is impossible) but really, really far from egalitarian.

That’s why Albert Bates who goes around “selling” The Farm is not being honest and above board, but if you pay attention to his presentation you’ll see it is nothing more than a clone of the corporate model that currently is ruining the world. I’ve yet to hear Bates mention anything about birth control (and in fact they encourage breeding with their dula program) and not getting people to adopt children already here. Guess many women (who actually have a choice) really want to “experience” carrying and passing that huge basketball through that small space more than they want save the planet or give love to a child.

Why they are not showing “Vera Drake” or “Story of Woman” to encourage methods of aborting when food and energy run short is beyond my ability to comprehend.

…With our eyes open, let us begin by acknowledging that tinkering around the edges of consumer capitalism is utterly inadequate.

In a full world of seven billion people and counting, a “fair share” ecological footprint means reducing our impacts to a small fraction of what they are today. Such fundamental change to our ways of living is incompatible with a growth-oriented civilisation…

…Among other things, this means living lives of frugality, moderation and material sufficiency. Unpopular though it is to say, we must also have fewer children, or else our species will grow itself into a catastrophe…

…Some argue that technology will allow us to continue living in the same way while also greatly reducing our footprint. However, the extent of “dematerialisation” required to make our ways of living sustainable is simply too great…

…First and foremost, what is needed for one planet living is for the richest nations, including Australia, to initiate a “degrowth” process of planned economic contraction…

He touched on all the core reasons for why we won’t be able to reduce global CO2 emissions and bring our ecological footprint to within any sort of sustainable level. I don’t see any signs that the human species will address these issues in order to avoid collapse. In fact we are looking more towards techno-fixes and political tinkering of data to massage projections and allow for weasel room in the continuation of BAU. There’s a plethora of literature explaining why we are psychologically averse to confronting such realities. If the author had delved into this aspect of our conundrum, then he surely would need medication to cope with the inevitable conclusions.

‘or else our species will grow itself into catastrophe’
We are already grossly over populated and over-consuming and are already in overshoot. We have already grown ourselves into catastrophe, which will become more evident each year.

All the problems man has now can be placed at the feet of those that have children,including my parents. When a couple has a child, each one’s carbon footprint increases by 50%? But as one of the many mammals, over 7 billion is not enough.
I’m sure pretzel logic can defend overpopulation causing NTHE.

Determining the fundamental causes of our predicament is a bit like a Russian doll. Certainly overpopulation and overconsumption are ‘basic’ causes, but further investigation reveals that the obscenely ballooning population and consumption are only made possible because we were able to raid the treasure trove of fossil energy.
Raiding that was only possible because of all the accumulated knowledge, starting with the smelting of metals, that existed. Are chimpanzees intelligent enough to smelt metals? No. So a good argument can be made that Ernst Mayr was correct when he stated that intelligence is a lethal mutation. As our unfolding tragedy shows, our intelligence is proving to be lethal not only to ourselves, but to many of our fellow species, and through the destruction of habitats and a even a habitable climate,the legacy of our misused intelligence will be a devastated wasteland.

The apes are on the bus, but the lizard is doing the driving.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Consciousness has less control than believed, according to new theory

“Consciousness — the internal dialogue that seems to govern one’s thoughts and actions — is far less powerful than people believe, serving as a passive conduit rather than an active force that exerts control, according to a new theory proposed by an SF State researcher.”

“Consciousness, per Morsella’s theory, is more reflexive and less purposeful than conventional wisdom would dictate. Because the human mind experiences its own consciousness as sifting through urges, thoughts, feelings and physical actions, people understand their consciousness to be in control of these myriad impulses. But in reality, Morsella argues, consciousness does the same simple task over and over, giving the impression that it is doing more than it actually is.”

“According to Morsella’s framework, the “free will” that people typically attribute to their conscious mind — the idea that our consciousness, as a “decider,” guides us to a course of action — does not exist. Instead, consciousness only relays information to control “voluntary” action, or goal-oriented movement involving the skeletal muscle system”

The researcher echoes Gurdjieff’s understanding that people only believe they are conscious. Real consciousness is an achievement requiring long and specific methods and work. It remains true that without the willingness and awareness to do that work, we will be machines as G. put it – and suffer the fate of machines that lack proper control or direction. It is understandable that many on these pages despair of this higher control ever being established in a sufficient number to avert our tragic trajectory. But the mistaken idea is also current that such control is impossible for anyone, and is innately out of reach for genetic or structural reasons. The sad truth is that we have all the equipment for becoming conscious, but due to pervasive social conditioning and unwillingness to do the work necessary – we have overwhelmingly avoided the one work that might make us truly human.

Apes paid more attention to film clips of an infant chimp being killed by its own kind than other acts of violence

“The team found that despite viewing the infanticide scene for longer, on the whole the chimpanzees did not become more emotionally aroused by what they saw.

This could be because as uninvolved “bystanders” they failed to empathise strongly with a victim not from their group, said the scientists.

“The results suggest that chimpanzees detect norm violations both within their group as well as in a group of unfamiliar individuals, but that they will only respond emotionally to such norm violations within their own group,” said Rudolph von Rohr.”

James Howard Kunstler said on his site today:
“From now on, there is only less of everything for a global population that has not stopped growing. The folks on-board are still having sex, of course, which has a certain byproduct.”

There are different estimates about the numbers during the population bottleneck. I’ll use 20,000 figure. At 20,001 no one saw a problem but it lead to over 7 billion.

When man goes extinct it may make any argument for reproducing,mute.I would like to thank again all the breeders for fucking up this planet.

Wonderful sentiments. It must have been a cheery scene at their death beds, huh? I agree with you. There are too many people. Have you considered suicide? You would be helping overshoot and curing your self-righteousness and self-loathing in one fell swoop. You could even take some people with you. I suggest a white church this time. Help balance things out. Consider eco friendly methods like strangulation with wet dish rags.

Everyone has a story. Yours is probably a sad one filled with unrequited love, rejection and the inability to get laid in highschool. Now, you’re a bald, fat, disgruntled man approaching middle age and feeling life didn’t turn out the way you expected. It’s palpable even in the impersonal digitized medium. There are countless ways to kill yourself. Use your imagination.

Although I should not respond to you, my mood is fowl this week (two of my neighbors were kevelling about their offspring all being pregnant (2 offspring for each one)) and what could I do but just not say anything at all while trapped in an elevator with both of them. Should I wish for miscarriages or just keep partying down while the planet seems to be in flames literally.

Your compassion, empathy and understanding seem to know no bounds (leap tall buildings with a single bound).

The old saying about rubber and glue comes to mind. The impression you left me with was one of those who when problems and challenges occur they are most important as you are so self important and self centered.

I wish you a very, very, very long life filled with witnessing much death and destruction of all those you may care about (if you can even care for others).

As a survivor of the AIDS pandemic here in NYC/SF during the 80s I ran into many people (mostly hetro, but surprisingly many homos) that were like you.

If the deaths and photos of all those animals being eradicated due to our behavior doesn’t soften your heart perhaps nothing will.

Fowl. Eat any chicken lately? I’m compassionate. I kill them quickly. Do you? Or do you just buy them from the grocery store?

I’m understanding. If someone rapes or abuses my kin, I understand what needs to be done. I have empathy. I’m prepared to teach it and make those who victimize feel intellectually what it’s like to be the victim. That’s real justice.

Try having a miscarriage party. That should solve your conundrum. People aren’t going to stop breeding because you wish it. They won’t even stop breeding when environmental limits foreclose on them. There’ll just be more dead babies. If the limits to growth study is accurate, expect that to start happening this century. If our species were compassionate by nature, we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing. Get real. But you’re soft and the future’s going to be very hard.

You’re engaged in a ‘woe is us’ party. Maudlin commiseration from a bunch of self-entitled, privileged Americans who wake up to a harsh new reality. We’re only reaping what we’ve sown. You say you feel bad for the other animals? You’re really only crying for yourself. And you say I’m the self-centered one.

Clearly, I’m talking to someone whose moral framework developed watching Bambi. How you became a fundamentalist with regard to procreation is a story in itself. You could be a tyrant and don’t even know it! Instead of feeling crossed up in the elevator, why don’t you congratulate yourself on your perspecuity. Look at all the hardship they’ll face and you’ll avoid thanks to your insight. It should make you feel better, which is the point of this whole exercise, right? How to get that fuzzy feeling back? Some people have kids. Others turn to Disney. Most white Americans never grow up, don’t want to, wish they could be forever young, and then feel a boatload of consternation and dissonance because they all end up dead. The world doesn’t like America and America doesn’t even like itself. It’s pathetic.

If you knew who I was (and you don’t) not a thing your wrote is new to me. Do I expect people to stop breeding, while they have options. No sir I sure don’t. And what I realized long ago is that I could do all the “right” things, but as long as my neighbor keeps on keeping on (Joel Salatan, Dan Kittedge, all those Weston Price members and their leader Sally Fallon who goes on and on about our infertility problem) it makes not a bit of difference what I do it won’t put the brakes on where we are heading.

Because I stuck my neck out and took action (organizing events means being stuck between the person suffering from “frontoftheroomitis” and the audience (who are observers for the most part wanting to hide in the crowd looking for an easy way out).

No longer organizing I am not longer bound to respect and keep my mouth shut while hearing lunacy coming out of the mouths of some of the people who I’ve brought to town.

That’s why I know Carolyn Baker is a fraud (I’ve literally watched her behave in a manner completely opposite to what she rambles on and on about, community, love, respect, yada, yada, yada) and that others who preach at the front of the bully pulpit are not really much better than those they are railing against.

Previously I wrote about my interaction with Chris Hedges (on this blog long ago in the comment thread) that when he spoke at Revolution Books in NYC I asked him how he could write about population yet he didn’t take care of business (having a vasectomy) after his second child, then be “surprised” with the unplanned birth of his recent child. He couldn’t answer and looked shame faced because his hand was caught in the cookie jar.

I’m not looking for flaws, we all have them (me included), I’m just sick to death of these leaders (whether on the left, right or center) saying one thing and then when the layers of the onion are pulled back they are little better than those they rant and rave about.

JMG with his Aspergers Syndrome. His constant barrage of words stating that he and the Mrs. are set up in the right place to ride out the storm. Rice Farmer with his belief that permaculture can abate the coming storm.

McPherson with his life of excellence while being rude, insensitive and lying right to people’s face. To mine in fact as I asked him out for a drink and he said he doesn’t imbibe, just like Agent Van Alden of Boardwalk Empire, then a few months later on his NBL PRN show he tells the tale of going out with his boy Peter Melton to enjoy an evening of drink. And he adds to the story about how back in 2011 his wife, Sheila, came home to the mudhut to find him drinking with Michael and his wife for the first time in his life. So, he does drink, he just chose to not drink with me (yet he invited me down to the mudhut). And people wonder why Belize may not work.

Well no need to worry about how soft I am. I lived through AIDS and watched (too many to count or even remember) the number of deaths that proved my mettle.

And just to shove it where the sun don’t sun (hey don’t worry I have no interest in you) the AIDS decade came after spending my twenties being caretaker for my parents (lung/bone cancer, pancreatic) while others partied hearty and couldn’t tolerate my “tales of woe”.

By the by I’ve slaughtered chickens, geese, and rabbits so I know the feelings that go with murder and taking a life. I’ve milked cows by hand, and I picked ripe succulent tomatoes off a vine and unhappily watched many drop to the ground and splatter, as well as not pick beans before the little critters got to them. armed and learned first hand about the delicate balance between weather, climate and food. With climate change the game changer you’re entire year’s worth of crops can be eliminated in a matter of days due to rain or heat.

And I grew up in a NYCHA project in the East New York section of Brooklyn so I’ve been around blacks, Latinos, Asians, etc., etc.,as well as Islamists, Catholics, Christians, and so many other types as opposed to the children raised in the confines of suburbia and then come to NYC (NYU in particular) and want to change the city into versions of those homogenized cul-de-sac neighborhoods.

Then there’s my years on Wall Street in the hub of horror. I consider myself lucky that I came out with a soul still in tact. You’ll never hear the words, “It’s just business out of my mouth.”

In the future I’d prefer not be Nucky Johnson or Goebbels thank you very much. I’ve f
My heroes are the likes of Sophie Scholl and Kurt Gerstein and don’t expect my end to be any better (well as a member of Exit International I’ll pick the time and place of my own choosing) than theirs was. You are not m hero nor would I find it pleasurable being on an island with you as you remind me of Jack Merridew or Roger.

By the by I don’t have to be around to watch. I don’t need an “I told you so” moment because there is no satisfaction at all in that for me.

Hopefully this rant has purged me as I’ll make every effort to not respond to you again. I realize I’ve had my buttons pushed by you and all this energy is fruitless and futile but even the most recovered of drunks (and being a twelve stepper in other programs, but not AA and not really believing in 12 step for many reasons) know they slip and fall and have to get up again, but can’t.

There are no right things, just a bunch of stuff we made up. I’m happy with the way things are turning out. I’m cheering on humanity’s slide into oblivion. And fuck all those people you mentioned. They’re just out to earn a buck no matter what they write. You have a lot of angst, but I apologize for jumping to a conclusion. You’re right, I don’t know you. You can’t know anybody on the internet. It’s like a person without a face who can still give you a blowjob and bite you while doing it. You don’t know where or how or why. Well, good luck. But I wouldn’t believe anything those assholes say. You end up disillusioned and feeling betrayed.

THE TIMELINE FOR COLLAPSE
We only have about 10% of our earth’s original forests left. We cut more than 18 million acres of forest every year. We already slashed and burned half the rainforests on earth. Rainforest soil degrades faster than others soils so farming it only depletes it faster. Rainforest roots are so thick, they don’t require robust soils.

In 2007, the IPCC told us emissions must peak by 2015 to stay within 2 °C of warming.

In 2014, the IPCC told us emissions must peak by 2030 to stay within 2 °C of warming.

The IPCC says we can make this change because of what they call “negative-emissions bio-energy” for which no such technology exists, and the kicker is, they say, that we will need 1.5 billion acres of NEW farmland to do it. That much farmland is about the size of India, which is equal to nearly 50% of all the arable land on earth. The acronym for this fantasy is BECCS. The real acronym is BS.

This will happen when all our new solar panels and wind mills stop working and become expensive junk we can’t afford to replace or recycle in times of shortages in water, food, energy, minerals and civility.

Got a question for you. I’ve created a document from all your stuff at redit and just carrying them around to hand to people.

Seems your point about solar and wind is on the mark (at least to me) and you even refer to Ozzie Zehne. However, the section where you mention nuclear seems to come across as pro nuclear is a possible solution. If this is so we’ll have to part ways on this this as I think Hansen (and Stewart Brand among others) lost what little thinking process they once had on this point. Was it your intent to come across as a pro nuc or am I misreading or misinterpreting what your wrote?

Quotes come from your How to Fix Everything and How We Can’t Fix Anything posts.

We have to use nuclear thorium-type power to clean up uranium waste to provide the base power green energy needs to clean up its act and reach carbon-energy resource efficiencies. Solar and wind power have their place but, the idea of solar panels making solar panels for everyone is ecologically unsustainable worldwide. Corporations know we don’t have enough resources to make green energy for everyone on earth forever. They don’t care, that’s not their goal. They are competing to see how many solar panels and wind turbines they can sell before we run out. We are better than that.”

“We think of major changes to the biosphere as the big extinction events, like that which finished off the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period. But the changes happening to the biosphere today may be much more significant, and uniquely are driven by the actions of one species, humans.”

It has been interesting to observe over years how the population debate has changed since climate disruption has become the most important environmental concern. Now the argument from the ecologically clueless is that overpopulation is not of concern in countries that have a low consumption of fossil fuels, because they are not contributing to CO2 emissions.
A couple of points for those people. Humans in agricultural societies that are disconnected or with little connection to use of fossil fuels still have environmental impacts. Overpopulation greatly increases those impacts.
Take Rwanda for an example. While often framed as an ethnic conflict,the main underlying driving force for the war there was overpopulation and struggle for resources. Rwanda has fertile basalt soils,but the increasing population meant that landholdings were becoming very small and land clearing on slopes too great to sustain agriculture for long continued ,as well as overhunting of wildlife..
Guess what?
Deforestation,soil erosion,Decimation or extinction of wildlife are all destruction of natural ecosystems. Fossil fuel doesn’t have to be involved,it has just allowed humans to greatly increase that destruction. Deforestation also contributes to increasing atmospheric CO2 levels. Wars over resources and famines become increasingly likely as the population increases.

Just like rabbits, another invasive species in Australia. Now, just imagine what they or people in Rwanda could do if they had your carbon footprint. I’m raising money to send you over there to show them more efficient ways to get it done, particulary impersonal and removed ways that obviate the need to get your hands dirty. These methods will allow them to feel better about themselves, just like you’re doing with your argument above. Don’t be alarmed if they cower at the sight of you. You’re going to be much bigger than them – up to 4 times as big – and white. That scares the shit out of a lot of people.

I like it. In my darker moments I often think we should just stop fighting it and celebrate the destruction of the biosphere and our impending collapse. Why not? Trying to make 7-billon-going-on-9-billion people guilty about not “saving the planet” clearly isn’t working. Might as well join the party and do our part to consume our way to oblivion.

Bring it on I say! Let’s import an entire rainforest and burn that in the fire pit as well! And here is the slag heap from a melted nuclear reactor core to sizzle some steaks on! What fun!

“How do you deal with a level of cognitive dissonance so profound that it casts a veil over all your interactions with other people, and makes these interactions seem somehow unreal?

What do you do when you dare not speak honestly about the things you know, the things you believe and care about, for fear the people you’re speaking with will just tune out or turn away? For fear they’ll put some distance between you and them, because they don’t want to talk about it, or even think about it. Because they’re not ready. Or because they just don’t care — or more accurately perhaps they just can’t care.”

humans are loud, noisy, obnoxious creatures. For those who wish for silence and to act with something other than yer yapper instead of sitting in front of a computer screen all day getting fat, north dakota university has some free publications with a lot of useful information.

People think that nuclear deterrence and mutual assured destruction is maintaining the peace. Nothing could be further from the truth. The ICBMs in more or less primitive forms left their silos many tens of thousands of years ago in the form of myriad inorganic tools. The result has been an accelerating vaporization of the natural world. The arms race in the industrial world, conducted between quasi national species, promises to competitively consume all resources until sudden catastrophic warfare, climate derangement, starvation or some combination thereof ends the industrial/technological metabolism. The human mind is preoccupied with engineering its own demise – period. If deep reflection were possible and adequate behavioral appetite controls had evolved, we may have had a chance, but they did not evolve as there was no reason for them to evolve in a world of scarcity.

Could we have expected anything else from an organism that can create novel visions in its neural tissue and then translate them into real structures? Even though most everything we build is some type of ecology destroying fairytopia meant to release a maximum amount of pleasure enhancing dopamine. Apes that live in 4,000 square foot cells connected by asphalt distribution capillaries where 5,000 pound metal vacuoles transport the increasingly unhealthy humans from cell to cell to complete their work. Imagine the amounts of energy that are necessary to allow this scale of metabolic activity and you will find it in fossil fuels, at least for a short while. I’ll have to say, before our scientists administer the last rights, that the entire f’ing thing, from beginning to end, is nothing more than an evolving cancer populated by an ape that finds the temporary isolation from nature to be something elevating and distinguishing and of course very satisfying. The miserable death of the organic system will not spare the technological cancer that grows within it.

I would have to say, “Hey dude, hope you can eat that thing when plants don’t grow in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska any more. Maybe you can get on Facebook and share all your heartfelt feeling with your significant others when your magical grocery at the megamall shuts its doors forever. Party on dude, but don’t come a knockin’ on my door when you little belly starts to growl.”

Thanks to Jerry for the Peter Wadhams Video.( I haven’t watched The Julian Cribb video, but recommended people read ‘Poisoned Planet’ several months ago. Brimful of good news. (joke))
Re Peter Wadhams ,how do we remove CO2 from the atmosphere in the necessary quantities? We would need to remove 30 billion tons each year just to keep CO2 from increasing further. This is one of the issues discussed in ‘Earthmasters’ by Clive Hamilton. It seems to be in the realm of fairyland dreaming .

At the risk of indulging in “confirmation bias” I agree completely. I don’t have the factoids handy, but I believe our primary energy globally is something like 80% plus fossil fueled. Any sane person can see we need to stop that level of consumption first before we can even think about adapting to the decades of climate chaos and sea level rise already in the pipe at 400ppm.

Unfortunately that would also require talking about population reduction which is one of the few topics that is slightly more taboo than the subject of reducing consumption.

And so we get otherwise intelligent people caught in a truly wicked cognitive dissonance and wondering out loud about absurdities like the one from our friend Wadhams.

It’s probably a moot point anyway. The evidence is good that we have indeed passed the point of no return and global feedbacks such as ice-free arctic, destabilized ice sheets, and melting permafrost are now well beyond our ability to control them, despite our fantasies to the contrary.

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Who really pulls the strings?:

The megawealthy and Washington have become so symbiotic as to be a single entity. The bought-and-paid politicians sitting in Washington are simply the marionettes of the corporations and financial elite who are dictating public policy and regulations.

Preserving the Status Quo

There is no right wing or left wing, only the aristocracy and the serfs (a vertical paradigm).
To know this is to be like a fish who has broken the surface of the water, realizing he was in water the whole time.

A Kabuki Play

"What we have, in what passes for US democracy in 2012, is a kabuki play that Cicero put to papyrus 1948 years earlier. All historical empires and war aggressors have used propaganda to claim their looting and police states were necessary and helpful to the 99%. Instead, a sorrowful history tells us they were almost always for the sole benefit of the 1%."
- Albert Bates

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